Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1887-04-14
WHY
(Toicdo Commercially

(Toledo Commercially
"Why did not God kill the devilf" is
the first puzzle OF human reason,
Why do we have evil, pain, suffering
and death7 Why is every living thing,
IRON the lowest in the scale OF being 10
the highest, subject TO this universa law :
Why does the most miserable insect that
grows from birth TO death in an hour, sui-
fer pains and inhrmities. loss OF limb,
hunger, starvation, arrangement Of funct-
ions-whv Is IL subject TO dangers from
other preying insects, and involved In a
ceaseless struggle for lite, liberty and
happiness, h just as the most perfect Of all
Gods creatures and the highest in the
scale Of inieligence7 Why Ia il that the
miracle OF death aud resurrection is con-
stRntly enacted and reenacted IN even the
vegetable world? Why is it that every
blade of grass, every flower of the fields,
is subject daily and hourly to bruislngs
and pains, and made the prey Of devour-
ing dangers from every element2
tb lilttS nOt H1boViy HOie heSpSt hheh
all atheism, higher than all faih ?
Deeper than atheism yes. Atheiam
leaves no hope. All Ia evil, and evil con-
tinually-evil elernally. 1t leaves no
hereafter, where all things may be made
even. 1t abandons reason, as we'll as
hope.
Reason teaches us that the whole Uni
verse ia subject to law; that there can he
no law without a Supreme Power ordain-
ing II. And Faith teaches us that this
Supreme Power must be infinite in intel.
ligence, goodness Iand Truth. 1t cannot
create merely to destroy. II cannot in
aict pain and suffering and death in sheer
wantonness OF power. Death can only be
a resurrection into new Lille, higher, bet
ter and more glorious. Every birth Ia
contaminated with pain and agony-every
birth is a severance Of the ties OF life
which bind to former state OF existence,
and the letting 90 is abhorrent to the law
OF being. Yet the new birth is resur.
rec,ion into higher form OF life. Death
is birth-a release, against which the
soul fights ignorantly by the law OF its be-
ing.
Every living thing must have implan-
ted in it the instinct OF aelf preservation,
otherwise the whole created world woud
be depopulated in an hour. We must
bde our time.
We cannot comprehend why the dear-
eat and most precious are taken away,
while 40 many that seem TO cumber the
ground are left.
Us mine the passionate pain
That will hearken the trembling'wind and feel
the wide still snow,
| And sob at night with the sobbing rain,
And only feel that can hot know,
can not know2
The beloved of every'name that stands
next to Heaven IN the home circle the
girl-wife, the young mother into whose
keeping God has 20 recently placed bud
ding life, the idol of her social world, SUR
rounded with every thing counted to adorn
life and make il precious in all that is
enobling and elevating, and helpful to
humanity; The life 40 mnch needed, 80
hard to lose, 30 impossible TO replace with
another; why is il taken away? Why il
il that other life, burden to itself, Of no
Use TO anyone. apparently-why does II
drag on and inHici its weary weight upon
lis useless orbit OF being.
The man who has filled wellrounded
career with usefulness, and who is gath
cred like the well-ripened sheaf ready for
the harvest who goes to juin Others that
have gone before, with cheerfulness II not
with gladness, impatient Of further wait
ing;-ihe woman whose whole allotted
span of life has been well filled with deeds
OF charity and works Of benevolence; whose
whole existence hns been crowned with
blessing, the memory OF which fingers like
the frsgrs nee of the box Of frankincense
these Two lives were finished, their life
work done. Bitter as their loss may be 10
many within their circle, the reason ia
not shocked and faith itself left to Rrope
blindly for consolation, in the bewilder-
ment Of the strange and incomprehensible
mysteries OF Providence. These have
come TO the grave IN full age, like as the
shock OF corn comeih in his season.
Perhaps there is, after all no bereave-
ment more incomprehensible or harder tC
bear than that OF the motheer, mourning
and hungering for her lost bsby-the lit
tie one whose existence was hardly begun
whose life page il a clear, pure, white blank
To such mother it SENS a cruel mockery
TO say, "Your baby is an angelic viii
never know sin nor sorrow, PAIN nor death ;
Ms. S. NJ. B. Piatt, Qhe poeless wIe oI
the poet John James Piatt,) who hni
} written az much from the mothers hear
of anguish, has written that which seemi
, to us the very incarnation Of the mother
feeling:
When the mothers heart was breaking that hat
Something most dear little while, and then
Murmured ut giving God his own again.
She cries out in her blind agony OF low
and longing
Is he not with his Father? So trust.
Is he not His7 Was he not mine?
His mothers empty arms yearn toward tn
dust.
Heaven lies too high, the soul is too divine.
l wake at night and miss him from my breast
And-human words can never say the rest.
Safer But out OF the world. out of my sightl
My way TO him through utter darkness lies.
II there be lights shut inside the skies.
Think YOU, to give my bosom bnck his breath
would not KISS him from the peace calle'
Death?
And do want little Angel7 No!
Itrdnt my Bdby-with such piteOus pain,
That were this bitter life thrice bitter, oh
could not choose but take him back again.
God cannot help me, for God cannot break
His own dark aw-for my poor sorrows sake
81 want my baby do not want a
Angel r. is the one blind, desr"irng. di
yineiy blaspheming cry Of moIher-love
and -he would have him back To hef bosou
though this bitter Lille were thrice butter
I and it brought him from the peace Of llea
, ven.
MISSIONARY ITEMS.
3 Thare n re 500 Chinese in PhiIulpluhia